With the recent popularity of ATV's, efforts have been made to make these vehicles, which were initially designed primarily for recreation, more utilitarian. One innovation which is gaining increased acceptance are trailmowers which are towed behind an ATV. Another use for trailmowers is to extend the cutting swath of a lawn or garden tractor which already incorporates an existing mower deck.
These trailmowers typically are self contained mower decks with attached engines which are attached to the ATV or tractor via an offset articulating tow bar. A typical example is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,086,614 to Thomas Pestka.
Due to the fact that trailmowers are usually offset with respect to the path of travel of the towing vehicle, as well as being positioned behind the tow vehicle, it is difficult for the vehicle operator to gauge the path of the outside of the mower deck. It is common, then for an operator to inadvertently hit obstacles, such as tree trunks, particularly with the outside edge of the offset trailmower.
In the past, it is known to provide rigid angled flanges on the outside of the trailmower deck which are positioned to be the first part of the deck to hit an obstacle. Due to their angle, these flanges urge the mower deck away from the obstacle, thus allowing it and the tow bar to pivot about the tow vehicle and skirt the obstacle. A problem with these prior art flanges is the damage they do to obstacles, particularly tree trunks, when they hit them. Another problem is the potential damage to the trailmower by repetitive abrupt shocks to the trailmower deck as the flanges encounter obstacles.
It is clear then, that a need exists for a trailmower which incorporates better protection from encounters from obstacles, both for the obstacle and the mower deck itself.